


Hold My Hand

by talkintothemoon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Death, Goodbyes, M/M, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 02:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12785289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkintothemoon/pseuds/talkintothemoon
Summary: He held him one last time so he could let him go.





	Hold My Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to try something different. Based on a post from otpprompts.tumblr.com

He needed to see him. He just talked to Tsunade and... And he needed to see him.

Iruka opened the door to Kakashi's hospital room. Someone's talking to him but his ears were unhearing and his eyes were unseeing. His everything lay unmoving in a plain hospital bed, poisoned and dying.

_"He's barely holding on."_

He's afraid to come closer but his feet wouldn't stop. It's as if they had a will of their own. It's as if they didn't care that they're bringing him towards a reality he's not willing to face yet. It's as if they weren't aware that his world, his love, his _life_ , was right there but farther from him than he ever was.

It's as if everything he had wasn't about to be gone.

_"We did everything we could but..."_

He refused to look at the man lying on the bed. He couldn't. Not yet. How can he, when just a week ago, the very same man was also lying on their shared bed in their own home, looking at him with eyes so happy, so alive? He couldn't stand that those eyes that at that night seemed to see _only him_ would now be closed in silent agony. So he didn't look. Not yet anyway.

_"By the time he got here, it's already too late."_

He remembered the feel of his hand tugging in his hair then. Kakashi always loved playing with it. He remembered how he caught and kissed it. He remembered how Kakashi held on, just like he always did, till he fell asleep. How would that hand feel now? He hoped they weren't cold. Kakashi always hated being cold.

_"It's a miracle he even got here."_

Iruka loved nights like that one, just lounging on the bed, hand in hand, not talking but still feeling so intimate. He'd close the book he's reading and kiss the pale forehead before tucking himself in as well. Those nights, they're just _Iruka and Kakashi_ , and that's enough. Those nights are more than enough. He wished he'd have a life full of them. He _thought_ he'd have a life full of them. Apparently, he won't. He almost fell when he realized he wouldn't even have just another one.

_"He must really have wanted to come home."_

__But _gods_ , he needed that. He needed _him._

 

"Iruka?"

He stilled and stared at Kakashi's hands. He didn't dare look at his eyes. He wasn't sure he wouldn't come undone if he did.

"Iruka," Kakashi whispered again, and this time, Iruka did look up, straight to the eyes of the beautiful man he knew and loved. He watched the grey eyes close and the mole under his mouth stretch as his lips curved to a content smile. It's obviously a difficult task for him at the moment, judging from the occasional winces and grunts, but he smiled nonetheless. "Iruka, I'm sleepy. Won't you hold my hand?"

**Author's Note:**

> It's also loosely inspired by emmykay's "Waiting". I remember reading that one and it *destroyed* me. It's the one brilliant fic that I just can't read a second time lol


End file.
